Free is always a more likely option to be chosen when it comes to software downloads. However, is free always the best bargain? The avid computer junkies are all too familiar with free multimedia players; however, what kind of benefits can free software really provide users with? Free multimedia players, including VLC Media Player, can have some limitations, but which features are users really willing to sacrifice for a little extra money in their wallet.
VLC Media Player is available for multiple operating systems and can handle any number of digital media formats. At first glance the product website shows all its unique features. Among these features the websites lists which formats are supported by the player. These formats include, but are not restricted to DVD, FTP, Audio CD, MPEG, and DVB files. However, Real Player files are only partially supported for all operating systems on the input side. VLC is a versatile program that has few limitations. The website illustrates the viewing quality of HD movies and concentrates on its playback features.
VLC is an open source program, which means that software developers are free to make any tweaks and changes that they see fit. The default distribution of VLC includes a large number of free decoding and encoding libraries, avoiding the need for finding proprietary plug-ins. Many of VLC’s codecs are provided by the libavcodec library from the FFmpeg project. It also gained distinction as the first player to support playback of encrypted DVDs on Linux by using the libdvdcss DVD decryption library. Based on the versatility in custom skins, all the digital formats the program can support, and its open source seal, VLC gets users a bargain package deal.